Referendum

Regarding your report about Casa de Maryland and the ACLU's effort to block a referendum on in-state tuition for noncitizens ("Vote on tuition bill faces lawsuit," Aug. 2): I have been watching the letters to the editors expecting to see someone point out the irony in the efforts of these groups, who are contesting the petition signatures on narrow legal grounds. Yet they are the same people that insist anyone can come into a polling place and vote, even if they are not registered and present no identification.

A conservative group trying to force a referendum on a transgender rights law scheduled to take effect this fall did not get the required signatures needed to bring the issue to a vote. The group, MDPetitions.com , was attempting to get 18,500 signatures by midnight Saturday to get the issue on the November ballot, but said on its website it was about 1,000 shy. "It is difficult to come this close and then fall short, and yet we know that it was only through this effort that people became aware of the effects of this bill," Washington County Del. Neil Parrott, a Republican who chairs MDPetitions.com, said in a letter on the group's website.

Last week was a very good one for Maryland's governor. He helped President Barack Obama win another term, increased the number of Democrats representing his state in Congress while also getting all his party's incumbents re-elected and went 7-for-7 on ballot questions, including the history-making same-sex marriage law. So perhaps he was feeling his oats. At least that would explain why Gov. Martin O'Malley so rashly told reporters - practically before the unplugged voting machines had gone cold - that he'd like the General Assembly to consider making it more difficult for a Maryland law to be petitioned to referendum.

With a weekend deadline looming, a conservative group - shadowed by an equal rights organization - is making a final push in an uphill effort to collect enough signatures to force a ballot referendum on a transgender rights law scheduled to take effect this fall. "The bottom line right now is we're going full speed ahead," said Washington County Del. Neil Parrott, a Republican who chairs MDPetitions.com. As of Friday, the group was thousands of signatures short of its goal. It faced a deadline of midnight Saturday to collect about 18,500 signatures to keep its effort going.

In Dan Rodricks ' column on Christians' view of marriage he says "I can't imagine Jesus condemning gays, [who] should be able to marry under the law" ("Same-sex unions: What would Jesus do?" Oct. 25). But the law stipulates that marriage is between a man and a woman. With the referendum Question 6 on the ballot in November, its supporters are now trying to change the definition of the law. Marie Mullen, Joppa

I am very concerned that our elected Democratic leaders in Maryland are missing an extremely important concern this special session of the legislature. The efforts to ram another casino onto the November ballot threaten two extremely important referendum initiatives, namely, the gay marriage referendum, and the Dream Act referendum. This past Tuesday in North Carolina should be a warning to us all because by a 61-39 margin, voters adopted an anti-gay marriage amendment to that state's constitution.

Shame on CASA de Maryland, the group shamelessly advocating for illegal immigrants, and the ever-flaky ACLU. They are trying to sift through signatures on the petition against in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in order to throw out as many signatures as possible. Really? Obviously, CASA has no respect for the rule of law and the rights of law-abiding citizens. But the ACLU pretends to be about individual rights even if the individuals are not legal and breaking multiple laws.

A Republican-led group trying to repeal Maryland's new congressional map has gathered enough valid signatures to trigger a referendum, the State Board of Elections said Wednesday. The map — which one federal judge called a "blatant political gerrymander" — was the result of the once-a-decade redistricting that must take into account population changes found by the census. But Democrats have acknowledged it was designed to give their party a strong chance of picking up a seventh seat in Maryland's eight-member delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fresh off of his referendum victories, Gov. Martin O'Malley said that throughout Maryland's history the state has been better served by "a representative democracy rather than plebiscites. " I looked up the word plebiscite in the dictionary and found it means "a vote by which the people of an entire country or district express an opinion for or against a proposal especially on a choice of government or ruler. " Put simply, the people have the ability to voice their opinion on a choice made on their behalf by the government.

I support the wish that the Sun's editorial staff has made ("Make our day," April 9) that Gov. Martin O'Malley's firearm legislation be sent to referendum, but for different reasons. First, it will give the law abiding citizens more time to buy the lawful guns. Second, it will give sufficient time for the supporters of the Second Amendment to educate the Maryland voting population that it is not the guns (or knives, poison, ropes, baseball bats, cars, etc.) that kill, it is the people (criminals, mental deranged people)

A conservative group will try to collect enough signatures to force a referendum on a law approved by the General Assembly this year protecting the rights of transgender individuals. MDPetitions.com, founded and led by Republican Del. Neil Parrott of Washington County, announced Tuesday that it is launching an effort to put the law on the November ballot. If the group collects enough signatures, voters would decide whether to uphold or overrule the law. The legislation passed both the Senate and House of Delegates by wide margins over the opposition of most Republicans and some socially conservative Democrats, and Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he will sign it. It is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, but if it goes to referendum, the law would be delayed pending the outcome.

The day after the state legislature extended civil rights protections to transgender people, the group that successfully petitioned same-sex marriage to the ballot in 2012 threatened to petition the transgender protections, too. MdPetitions.org sent a letter to supporters Friday soliciting interest in putting the transgender law to referendum this year. "The good news is that we don't have to accept this bill as law - there is another way...

I read with interest the letter from Courtney Watson, printed in the Dec. 10 edition, in which she states that referendum rights were addressed in a bill she sponsored in 2010 [CB34]. She called for the Maryland Board of Elections to look into what the Howard County Board of Elections has done in refusing to certify the current referendum of parts of 2013 CB32 Comp Zoning. Many people obtained and had certified more than the necessary number of signatures. [The group getting the signatures had asked in advance for a certification of the wording being a legal summary of the parts of the bill, and were told the Board would not make that decision.]

The right to referendum is the basic democratic right of the people to appeal a government legislative action through petition and the power of the vote. As a former citizen activist and a current elected official, I wholeheartedly support this right. In 2010, I sponsored Howard County Council Bill 34, which clarified that county law has a minimal role in the referendum process which is governed by state law. CB 34 sought to elucidate this for the Board of Elections. In light of recent petition failures, I believe that the Board of Elections needs guidance from the state and that the state law needs to be made clear.

A Baltimore County judge has upheld the local election board's decision to reject petitions that sought to overturn county zoning maps. Circuit Judge Jan Marshall Alexander ruled this week in the case. In February, the county election board rejected the petitions used in the ballot drive, saying that signature collectors did not give voters enough information. If successful, the referendum drive would have put many of the County Council's zoning decisions from 2012 on the 2014 ballot.

Editor: I am distressed and saddened that the death penalty repeal is not being brought to referendum because not enough signatures were secured in the short amount of time provided to do so. As the relative of a murder victim I would have liked the opportunity to sign a petition and to go door-to-door to gather signatures. I would have gladly stood outside Harford Mall or any other public place to collect signatures. The petition drive apparently was never well-publicized on TV. I did not encounter any volunteers throughout Harford County seeking signatures.

The citizens of the "Free State" have clearly demonstrated their constitutional right to petition to referendum legislation enacted by the General Assembly that they feel is contrary to the will of the majority ("Political map is headed for vote," July 12). Now that three controversial issues will be determined by the voters, you can rest assured that the governor, the legislative leadership and their Democratic puppets in both houses who feel they know what is best for voters will be conspiring to change the number of signatures required to petition laws to referendum and how they are submitted.

Petition signature collectors have hit the streets again in Baltimore County for a referendum effort on development issues - this time targeting a recent County Council bill that would protect a Middle River project from an earlier referendum challenge. Last month, County Councilwoman Cathy Bevins, a Middle River Democrat, sponsored and won approval for a bill that would let a Middle River development proceed, even if the zoning is overturned through a pending referendum attempt.

So what was all this about a voter referendum or two? Opponents of a pair of controversial measures backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved this year by the Maryland General Assembly - a repeal of the death penalty and landmark gun control legislation - claimed the local populace was outraged by both. So certain was this that many fully expected them to be brought to referendum and defeated by voters in 2014. The petition drive to bring the death penalty repeal to referendum was even championed by Western Maryland Del. Neil Parrott who was instrumental in bringing three laws to referendum last year through use of a web site that made the signature-gathering process easier.

Maryland's death penalty will be wiped from the books in October now that efforts to reinstate capital punishment have fallen short. The petition drive to halt repeal of the death penalty ended Friday afternoon, when organizers said they could not collect enough signatures to go forward. Meanwhile, advocates who worked for nearly a decade to end capital punishment in Maryland celebrated the final landmark in their victory. The failure is the first for MdPetitions.com, which had successfully forced a statewide vote on three laws, including same-sex marriage, in 2012.